THE TERROR OF ISLAM

THE TERROR OF ISLAM
By Abdullah Al Araby
It happens almost daily, from Bali, to Moscow, to Tel Aviv, and it is a daily occurrence in Europe. Now it is beginning to be a serious threat to our peaceful way of life in the United States. The word is TERRORISM, and almost every time you hear or read about it, it is attached to the word “Islamic.”

Islam: A religion of peace?
Muslim activists emphasize that Islam is a religion of peace. They say that “Islam” is derived from the Arabic word “Salam,” meaning peace, while Islam, in fact, means “Surrender” (to the will of Allah).

To prove that Islam stands for peace, Muslims often quote certain verses out of the early period of the Quranic revelation. Here are some of them.

“Let there be no compulsion in religion.” Surah 2: 256

“And have patience with what they (opponents) say, and leave them with noble (dignity).” Surah 73:10

However, what Muslim advocates deliberately fail to say is that the peaceful verses from the Meccan period have been abrogated (nullified) and replaced by the militant verses of the Medinan period. These verses were written after Mohammed moved to Medina, abandoned his peaceful approach and resorted to using the sword. As an example of the abrogation, 124 verses of the Quran that call for tolerance, peace, and patience have been canceled and replaced by this one single verse:

"Fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war.)” Surah 9:5

Islamic violence around the world
The following are news items taken from newspapers in recent years:

August 5, 2003, JAKARTA, Indonesia
A powerful car bomb exploded outside the Marriott hotel in downtown Jakarta on Tuesday, killing 13 people and wounding nearly 149 in what an official said was likely a suicide attack. A Dutch citizen was reportedly among the dead and two Americans were believed hurt.

November 28, 2002 - Mombassa, Kenya
“A statement attributed to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the car-bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya and the attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in the same day. The statement called the attack a “Ramadan Greeting” to the Palestinian people.”

October 14, 2002 - Bali, Indonesia
“In the tourist island of Bali, bombs were exploded by a Muslim group known as Jemiah Islami. The bombs were detonated in the “Sari Club and Hotel” and at the public “Kuta Beach,” killing 200, mainly western tourists and wounding 500 that were mainly local Hindus. In poverty stricken Muslim Indonesia the island of Bali is an oasis of hope, generating 70% of the nation’s tourism revenue.”

September 11, 2001 - New York, USA
“Thousands of Americans are missing and presumed dead in the worst terrorist attack by Muslim extremists in the United States history. Two hijacked airliners on a suicide mission crashed into New York's Twin Towers, causing their collapse. A third crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth went down in western Pennsylvania, its mission believed to have been thwarted by passengers."

October 12, 2000 - Aden, Yemen
“Muslim extremists crashed a small boat, loaded with explosives, into the Navy destroyer USS Cole, docked in the port of Aden, Yemen. The explosion blew a 40X40 hole in the ship killing 17 American sailors and injuring dozens of others.”

August 7, 1998 - Kenya and Tanzania
“Bombs placed by Muslim extremists exploded at U.S embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing at least 224 people, including 12 Americans. Washington responded with cruise missile attacks on sites allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden.”

November 17, 1997 - Luxor, Egypt
“Muslim militants marched into Southern Egypt’s Temple of Hatshepsut and massacred 58 tourists. The incident was one of the deadliest acts of terrorism directed specifically at tourists."

June 25, 1996 - Khober, Saudi Arabia
“A Muslim extremist truck bomb exploded outside the Khobar Towers housing complex near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. 19 U.S. Air Force personnel are killed and more than 500 Americans and Saudis are injured.”

October 19, 1994 - Tel Aviv, Israel
“A powerful bomb, apparently placed by Islamic militants opposed to the Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, blew up a crowded bus during the morning rush hour in the heart of Tel Aviv, Israel. 22 people were killed and 48 were injured.”

July 18, 1994 - Buenos Aires, Argentina
“A huge bomb placed by Muslim extremists exploded destroying a seven-story downtown building housing two Jewish groups in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At least 26 people were killed and 127 were injured.”

February 26, 1993 – New York, USA
“A tremendous underground explosion rocks the 110-story twin towers of Manhattan's World Trade Center killing at least five people and injuring more than 1000. Tens of thousands of workers are sent fleeing for their lives down crowded smoke-filled stairs. Authorities believe that the explosion was caused by a bomb placed by Muslim extremists.”

May 4, 1992 - Mansheit Nasser, Egypt
“13 Egyptian Christians were shot dead by Muslim fundamentalists in Mansheit Nasser, Egypt. Ten Christian farmers were ambushed and murdered while working in their fields. A Christian teacher was shot in the local school while teaching a class of ten-year olds. A Christian doctor was shot dead outside his home.”

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Silencing the opposition
Muslims have been taught not to question Allah and his Apostle. They are ordered to accept and practice their sayings regardless of how irrational they may sound. They were also taught to react violently toward anyone who questioned or criticized Allah or Mohammed.

Mohammed was a prime example of this to his followers; he had no tolerance for anyone who uttered the slightest insult about him. The poetess, Asmaa bint Marwan, was killed for uttering a few verses of poetry against Mohammed. A Muslim assassin, acting on Mohammed's orders, crept in at night to the women's bed, while her suckling baby was attached to her breast. The man plucked the baby from her breast and then plunged his sword into her abdomen. Another example was Abu Afak, an old man of 120 years of age, was murdered for composing poetry critical of the Prophet.

The essential problem is that the fruit of Mohammed's legacy exists today. As Muslims get deeper into Islam, they simply try to follow in the footsteps of their prime example by dealing in force against anything that they perceive as anti-Islam. Shaikh Abdul Aziz al-Alshaikh, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia the highest official cleric in the country, issued a fatwa (sanction) which was published in the government’s religious magazine “Al-Dawa,” in May 11, 2000. The Fatwa was in an answer to a Muslim’s question, “If there were websites on the Internet that are hostile to Islam, and broadcast immoral materials, is it permissible for me to send it viruses to disable these websites and destroy them?” Abdel Aziz answered, “If these websites are hostile to Islam and you could encounter its evilness with goodness, and respond to it, refute its falsehood, and show its void content; that would be the best option. But if you are unable to respond to it, and you wanted to destroy it and you have the ability to do so, its ok to destroy it because it is an evil website.”

There are many examples of violent acts committed against intellectuals who in the course of their creative work stumbled into forbidden domains, and committed the unpardonable sin of speaking their mind against Islam or the prophet Mohammed.

On November 26, 2002, the deputy governor of a largely Islamic state in northern Nigeria called on Muslims to kill the Nigerian writer of a newspaper article about the Miss World beauty pageant1. The article sparked deadly riots that killed about 215 and injured over 500 people. 4,500 lost their homes in reaction to the article. Isioma Daniel, a Lagos-based fashion writer, was commenting on Muslims objection to the beauty pageant and reportedly wrote that Mohammed would have approved of the pageant: “What would Mohammed think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them.” This comment was seen by Muslims as an insult to their prophet. A Muslim leader issued an edict, “If she (Daniel) is Muslim, she has no option except to die. But if she is a non-Muslim, the only way out for her is to convert to Islam.” Daniel now is in hiding


On November 5, 2002, Professor Hashem Aghajari, was sentenced to death in Tehran2. He was charged for questioning the hard-line clergy’s interpretation of the Quran. In a speech, Aghajari had said that the clerics’ teachings on Islam were considered sacred simply because they were part of history, and he questioned why clerics were the only ones authorized to interpret Islam. Aghajari’s speech provoked organized street rallies by hard-liners in several cities.

On July 30, 2001, well-known Egyptian feminist writer, Nawal Al-Saadawi, appeared in court. A case had been filed against her in May, calling for a divorce from her husband, Sherif Hitata, in relation to comments she had made on religious issues3. The complaints against her were based on the “Hisba” law. It is an Islamic legal procedure that allows an individual to file complaints, on behalf of society, against another individual.

In 1995, Dr. Nasr Hamed Abu Zeid, a university professor in Cairo, was faced with similar charges. On June 14, 1995, a Court of Appeal ruled that he had insulted the Islamic faith in his writings4. It ordered his wife to divorce him on the grounds that, as a Muslim, she should not remain married to an apostate. The Court of Cassation upheld the ruling in August of 1996. Dr. Nasr and his wife are currently living in exile in Europe and continue to challenge their forced divorce before a judicial appeals body in Egypt.

On June 4, 1994, Taslima Nasrin, 32, a Bangladesh feminist and writer, fled her Dhaka apartment and went into hiding5. A warrant was issued for her arrest after a newspaper in India quoted her as saying that the Quran should be revised. She was accused of offending the religious sentiments of Muslims. Nasrin denied making such statement, saying that she had not called for a revision of the Quran, but of Islamic law, known as Sharia. Despite her denial and clarification, Muslims radicals intensified their campaign against her. A Muslim leader in Khulna, 30 miles south of Dhaka, offered $2,500 in cash for her assassination. The government finally charged her with “intent to deliberately and maliciously outrage the religious feelings of Muslims.”

In 1988 Naguib Mahfouz received his Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel, “Children of Gebelawi”. Islamic fundamentalist later condemned the novel as blasphemous6. This caused an uproar akin to the later reaction against Salman Rushdie's, Satanic Verses. In 1994 the Nobel Prize laureate was stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife. Two Egyptian Islamic militants were sentenced to death in 1995 for attempting to kill him. Upon questioning, the assailants admitted that they had never read the novel, and that they had acted upon a religious fatwa (edict) made by their leaders.

In June 1992 a member of Gamaa Islamiya assassinated Dr. Farag Fouda7, an Egyptian university professor, an intellectual, and a staunch advocate of secularism. His assassin confessed that he was motivated by a debate between Fouda, Ghazali and Hodeibi, and a statement made by a council of Azhar scholars calling Fouda “a follower of the non-religious current and extremely hostile to anything Islamic.” He reported that he felt that the assassination was his duty for the fulfillment of Islamist objectives. Farag Fouda was the first to warn against the ideas of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

In 1988, Salman Rushdie, an Anglo-Indian novelist received his Whitbread Award for his novel “The Satanic Verses.” Later, the novel was criticized by Islamists around the world, banned in India and South Africa, and burned on the streets of Bradford, Yorkshire, UK. The Ayotollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (an edict) to execute the writer and the publisher of the book8. An aid to Khomeini offered a million-dollar reward for Rushdie’s death. In 1990 Rushdie published an essay titled “In Good Faith” to appease his critics and issued an apology in which he reaffirmed his respect for Islam. However, Iranian clerics did not withdraw their death threat. In 1993 the publisher was wounded in an attack outside his house. Rushdie went into hiding. In 1997 the price on Rushdie’s head was doubled. A few years later the highest Iranian state prosecutor, Morteza Moqtadale, renewed the death sentence. During this period of fatwa, violent protest broke out in India, Pakistan, and Egypt causing several deaths.
The items that I have mentioned are just a few examples out of thousands of terrorist attacks. They all have one element in common: they were all committed by Muslim extremists. While there are extremists in other groups who are capable of committing acts of violence, it seems that violence committed by Muslim extremists exceeds the violence of all other groups combined.

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Why do Muslim extremists act this way?
Are Muslims acting this way because they are inherently inhuman, savage, and evil? Of course not; Muslims are ordinary people, just like anybody else. They are fathers, brothers and sons. They are doctors, engineers and lawyers. They are your co-workers, and your next-door neighbors. Only the Muslims who hold extremist views are capable of committing these acts of violence.

So, what goes on in their minds, causing them to act violently?
To understand this, one must understand an important and dangerous Islamic teaching called “Jihad” (Holy war). It is important to understand that not every Arab is a Muslim, not every Muslim is an Arab, and not every Muslim is an extremist. We are not trying to attack a group of people here; we are only exposing a teaching within a religion that could have a serious effect on all society. |
It is also important to know that in exercising Jihad, Muslims may not think they are trying to maliciously hurt others, but rather they think that they are only obeying God's commandments. And, by doing so, they are assuring themselves of a place in Paradise.

Jihad (Holy War)
Jihad is one of many sacred duties Muslims perform. The word “Jihad” is an Arabic word, which means, “struggle.” Jihad can mean the struggle within oneself to be a better Muslim, but it can also mean fighting in the name of Allah. In this sense Jihad is the struggle for the cause of spreading Islam, using all means available to Muslims including force. This kind of Jihad is often referred to as “Holy War.”

In resorting to force, Muslims will not have any problem finding passages in the Quran (believed by Muslims to be Allah's word), and the Hadith (Mohammed's sayings), that not only condone violence, but demand it. Somebody counted the times the word “kill” and other words derived from it that appeared in the Quran and Hadith and found them to be about 24,400 times.

It is bad enough if a religion calls on adherents to kill themselves, but what right do they have to kill others? If Allah gives Muslims the right to kill, what kind of God is he that orders followers to kill innocent people on his behalf?

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Jihad in the Quran
Allah orders Muslims in the Quran to terrorize non-Muslims on His behalf:

“Strike terror (into the hearts of) the enemies of Allah and your enemies.” Surah 8:60

“Fight (kill) them (non-Muslims), and Allah will punish (torment) them by your hands, cover them with shame.” Surah 9:14

“I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them It is not ye who slew them; it was Allah.” Surah 8:12, 17

“But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.” Surah 9:5

“Fight (kill) those who believe not in Allah, nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”
Surah 9:29

Jihad in the “Hadith”
In the Hadith, Mohammed also urges Muslims to practice Jihad. Mohammed once was asked: “what is the best deed for the Muslim next to believing in Allah and His Apostle?” His answer was: “To participate in Jihad in Allah's cause.” Al Bukhari vol. 1:25

Mohammed was quoted as saying: “I have been ordered to fight with the people till they say, none has the right to be worshipped but Allah.” Al Bukhari vol. 4:196

Mohammed also said, “the person who participates in (Holy Battles) in Allah's cause and nothing compels him to do so except belief in Allah and His Apostle, will be recompensed by Allah either with a reward, or booty (if he survives) or will be admitted to paradise (if he is killed).” Al Bukhari vol. 1:35

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Mohammed’s Example
When the prophet of Islam started preaching his new religion in Mecca, he was conciliatory to Christians and Jews. He told them: “We believe in what has been sent down to us and sent down to you, our God is the same as your God.” Surah 29:45

This attitude changed completely after he gained strength. Allah then allegedly told him to “Fight People of the Book (Christians and Jews), who do not accept the religion of the truth (Islam), until they pay tribute (penalty tax) by hand, being inferior.” Surah 9:29

Comparing Christians to the Jews, it seems that Mohammed hated the Jews more. The Quran clearly states:

“Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find theJews and Pagans; and nearest among them in love to the believers wilt thou find those who say, “We are Christians”: because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant.” Surah 5: 82

During his lifetime, Mohammed devoted much of his efforts to get rid of the Jews. He stated. “You (Jews) should know that the earth belongs to Allah and his apostle, and I want to expel you from this land (the Arabian Peninsula), so, if anyone owns property, he is permitted to sell it.” Al-Bukhari vol. 4:392

At that time, there were three Jewish tribes in Medina. Mohammed’s men besieged two of them, the Bani Qaynqa and the Bani-al-Nudair tribes. Their access to food supplies was blocked until they surrendered on Mohammed's terms. His terms for their lives to be spared were that they had to deposit all their belongings at a certain place for distribution among Muslims and then emigrate from Medina.

The third tribe, Bani Qurayza, was not as lucky. During the War of the Trench, Abu Sofyan led a siege against Mohammed’s forces. Afterward, it was alleged that Bani Qurayza agreed to provide help from within to Abu Sofyan's forces. The alleged help never materialized and the siege eventually ended. Nonetheless, Mohammed never forgave them for their willingness to help his enemies.

The Muslims turned against the Bani Qurayza tribe and blocked their streets for twenty-five days. Then the Jewish tribe expressed readiness to accept the surrender terms that had been afforded to the other two Jewish tribes. Their belongings were to be confiscated and they were to be granted safe conduct for their departure from the area10.

Mohammed, however, would not consent to this. Instead he appointed as an arbiter Saad iben Moaz, a man who was known to be on bad terms with Bani Qurayza. Saad ruled that all Bani Qurayza's men should be beheaded, that the women and children should be sold as slaves and that all their property should be divided among the Muslims. Trenches were dug in the bazaar of Medina for disposal of the eight to nine hundred Jewish bodies whom Mohammed and his men had spent the night slaughtering. (See Ibn Hisham: The Prophet's biography; vol. 2 pages 240 & 241).

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In Conclusion:
These are historical facts that occurred 14 centuries ago. They represent a dangerous tendency for violence in the Muslim mentality. More serious is that Muslim fundamentalists are trying to repeat these acts of violence in this 21st century.

In doing so they are terrorizing individuals and governments as well. Islamic violent protests occur around the world whenever Islam is being criticized. As a result, governments around the globe have started to enact laws under the pretext of “hate crimes.” These laws prosecute anyone who criticizes Islam or Muslims. The laws have, in fact, very little to do with hate crimes. They are designed only to appease Muslims, and quell their wrath, for the sake of peace and tranquility in society.

Nothing is mentioned about the criticism Christianity receives from Muslim religious leaders in the media of the Islamic world and of the West as well. But Christians are tolerant of criticism against their religion; no riots, nobody gets killed, and no buildings get burned. No wonder, nobody cares about hate crimes against Christians.

Once again we are being held hostage. One of the weapons that are being used to keep us as hostages is terror, and more terror.


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